Video - The Real Dark Ages: How Evangelicals Wrote Women out of Church History
Jun 8, 2026
Historian Beth Allison Barr presents new archival research showing how courses at a major evangelical seminary ignored or explained away women's leadership roles in church history. She argues that, intentionally or otherwise, these acts of forgetfulness bolstered movements to impose new limits on women in the present.
In this lecture, Beth Allison Barr asks, "How did we get to a place where the largest Protestant denomination in North America—which once supported women in teaching, preaching, and ministry all over the world—is now proclaiming that 'for 2000 years the Christian church has limited the office of pastor to men'?" Her research suggests that part of the answer lies in church history courses and textbooks that excluded all the evidence to the contrary.
This lecture is part of Regent’s Evening Public Lecture series for Summer 2026. Visit rgnt.net/epl to learn more!